Back we travel to the Canary Island of Arricefe and the Lava Landscape in Lanzarote. In the Timanfaya National Park sits a small information area and restaurant, named El Diablo. During our short stay (followed by a 45-minute drive through the vast lava fields…on another winding, narrow, drop-off entrenched road,) there is a short demonstration of the intense heat just below the lunar-like surface. The first exhibit takes place in a 8-10 foot pit. A scrub of dried local brush is pushed into the pit. Within 10 seconds the weeds burst into flames from the heat without a visible source flame or lava.

The Burning Bush

Next we moved to a an area with a couple of small pipe vents bored into the ground. A worker pours a couple liters of water into the hole and within 3 seconds the water is blown out of the vents in the form of steam.

I managed to time this pretty good.

The final demonstration is ongoing just outside the restaurant. All of the eateries meat is cooked on a metal grill that spans a 20-foot pit, with temperatures reaching several hundred degrees Celsius (100 degrees C equals 212 degrees F.) The hole in the ground is about 15 feet in circumference and the various meats are grilled above this vast open air oven. If one leans over the lip of the pit (as in when trying to take a picture), eyebrows are nearly singed off. Again, there is no visible flame or lava in the pit.

Hot off the grill

The pit of heat and certain doom. (No virgins were sacrificed in the writing of this blog post.

The last eruptions in the immediate area took place in over a six-year period between 1790 to 1796. Amazing there was no loss of life, but many villages and hamlets were lost, as was agricultural areas for farming, etc. The final eruption on the island took place in 1824 and was much weaker in scale. The Lunar-Like Lava Landscape is Littered with over 180 species of Lichen. Check out this link for better photos of the area and the B-B-Q pit. CLICK HERE. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** (Note: There is a pattern to the postings of my A To Z Blog Challenge (besides the A-Z order of the alphabet. The first person to correctly identify the pattern wins a free copy of my book, And The I Smiled: Reflections on a Life Not Yet Complete and a $5.00 gift card from Fort Collins Coffee House (if in Northern CO) or Starbucks if outside the FTC area.) This is still unclaimed.